Hair Paste for Chemo Hair

Yesterday I went to the salon to get my hair done for a family wedding this weekend. It reminded me that when I was at the BRCA conference earlier this summer in Toronto, I sat beside a woman whose hair had just begun to grow back — it was barely three-fourths of an inch long. She lamented that she had a wedding to go to that coming weekend and had no idea how she was going to look good with the limited amount of hair she had to work with. I recommended that she try using a hair product that my hairstylist recommended and showed me how to use when my hair began growing back. It’s a fun product called hair paste.

When hair starts growing back, it isn’t quite the hairdo we were dreaming about during chemotherapy. My hair was curly and looked like I had four tufted patches on my head: one on the back, two on each side, and one on the top. It was the kind of hairdo you would expect to see on a circus clown. But my hairstylist Ronda came to my rescue — as always, she knew what to do.

Ronda has been my stylist since I came to Michigan almost eight years ago. I found her when I went to a salon hoping they could copy the same blonde shade my stylist in Toronto had been using to color my hair. My first attempt to find a color expert in my new hometown left me with bright orange hair, and I had to return to Toronto to fix it. Travelling to Toronto every time I needed to have my hair done was not going to work for me. Fortunately, I walked into the salon where Ronda worked. She had every confidence that she could give me my blonde hair; I loved her instantly.

Ronda did my last coloring before I lost my hair to chemotherapy. I called to let her know I had developed breast cancer and wouldn’t be seeing her for a while. After almost six months of absence from the salon, Ronda phoned to see how I was doing. I excitedly told her my hair was growing back, and she insisted I come in to see her so she could clip it and fix it up. I thought it was funny to go for a haircut when I barely had any hair, but I am so glad I did. She turned the clown ‘do into a cool and chic-looking short style. She then showed me how to use hair paste to style my hair. It is thick and white — just like toothpaste — but you can use it to create a cool-looking style. I would push up the back and sides and pull the front forward — it looked great for not even an inch of hair and eased the awkward period of growing my hair back.

All survivors of breast cancer have the same problem after chemotherapy. Our hair begins to grow back, often with a poodle curl, and we suffer through by still wearing a wig or looking clownish until it gets longer. So today I am sharing my stylist Ronda’s hair paste trick for after-chemo hair. Companies like Redken, Rusk, and Bed Head by Tigi make it, and you can always ask your hair salon to order some for you. Give it a try — you might just learn to love your stylish short hairdo.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathy-Ellen Kups, RN

Kathy-Ellen is a Registered Nurse living in Michigan. In 2003, Kathy-Ellen was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She was cancer-free from April 2004 until December of 2013 when it was discovered that...read more

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